RIPARIAN CITY

DOAN BROOK WATERSHED

15,000 B.C.E.
Where do you live? It seems like a
simple question.
David Beach, The Greater Cleveland Environment Book

There was, of course, no Cleveland

before Cleaveland.
The Committee of 500 Years of Dignity and Resistance
 This document recognizes that its bearer resides, or
has resided, in the Riparian City of the Doan Brook
Watershed.
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It is requested that the bearer be permitted movement and
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RIPARIAN CITY
assistance in other watersheds existing in other political
t h pi
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po les Bearers take sole responsibility for the accuracy of
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DOAN BROOK WATERSHED
information contained herein.
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15,000 B.C.E.
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va Doan Brook Watershed Embassy & Port of Entry at
SPACES, 2220 Superior Via, Cleveland.
More information:
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SIGNATURE
RIPARIAN CITY: DOAN BROOK WATERSHED
NAME
DATE OF ISSUE RIPARIAN
OTHERCITY
CITIZENSHIPS
DOAN BROOK WATERSHED
15,000 B.C.E.
SPECIES AFFILIATIONS
GEOLOGICAL ADDRESS LAKE PLAIN ESCARPMENT PLATEAU
THE DOAN BROOK WATERSHED
IS A RIPARIAN CITY, A LIVING
TERRITORY CREATED WHERE A
FLOWING STREAM MEETS THE
LAND.
It is formed by an urban waterway (The Doan
Brook) over 8 miles in length that receives
water from almost 12 square miles of densely
populated urban land and carries it to Lake
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type of ecosystem, a collection of geological
forms populated by plants and animals that
has been altered by urban and suburban de-
velopment.
The Brook begins near a series of lakes con-
structed in the 19th Century by the North
Union Shaker Community; at its end sits
Dike 14, a man-made peninsula in Lake Erie
formed by sediment removed from Cleve-
land’s harbor and the Cuyahoga River in or-
der to make the river accessible for shipping.
In between, it makes its way across the land,
periodically forced underground, carrying
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THE DOAN BROOK WATERSHED
IS NOT A SELF-DEFINED TERRI-
TORY, HOWEVER.
The rattlesnakes, wolves, chestnut trees,
salamanders and other once thriving human
and non-human inhabitants surely knew it by
other names long before Nathaniel Doan ar-
rived here in the late 18th century. Since the
earliest human settlements over 11,000 years
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actions between humans and non-humans.
Just as humans respond to their surroundings
and each other, non-human forces respond
to each human intervention, often in unpre-
dictable and unforeseen ways, perhaps most
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banks, unable to handle the volumes resulting
from engineered containment and increases
in paved surfaces.
This passport to, and guide through, the Riparian
City of the Doan Brook Watershed is necessarily
partial and incomplete in many ways. What we
provide here is a suggested entryway, one that is
incomplete and imprecise.
The Lake Plain
Geothermal Culture
‡/RFDWLRQ: Memorial Shoreway Pedestrian
Bridge linking Gordon Park to the Cleveland
Lakefront Nature Preserve
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Doan Brook, the Gordon Park pedestrian bridge
provides a panoramic view of the cultural, geo-
logic and symbolic histories of the Riparian City.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, wa-
terfront parks served as a popular site of urban
leisure, and the 122 acre Gordon Park was no ex-
ception. It’s hard to imagine now, but between its
opening in 1893 and World War II, Gordon Park’s
beaches and other amenities served as a nearby
getaway for east side Clevelanders. The post-war
era brought industrial pollution and the Memorial
Shoreway that cut the beach off from the rest of
the Park and forced the Brook underground.
Looking west, you will see the Lake Shore Plant,
a coal burning electric generator. At one time,
coal from western lands (more than 550,000 tons/
year) was burned to power 450,000 homes. In the
process of generating steam and electricity, the
plant took in 150,000 gallons of water per min-
ute, which was heated up and sent back into the
lake. While the original plant opened in 1911 un-
der the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company,
it wasn’t until the 1960s that the plant reached its
peak output of 520 mega watts. It is likely that
300 high-voltage, underground cables, once car-
rying 11,000 volts each, still secretly radiate out
from the plant.
The plant’s current owner, FirstEnergy, decided
to close the plant in late 2012 in response to
heightened environmental regulations. Along
with 1,422,269 tons of CO2, the plant released
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ies of the lake’s walleye and steelhead trout, and
the surrounding humans who might eat them. It
has been estimated that 13,000 humans died in
2010 from illnesses related to coal plan emissions
in the United States. Because of such statistics,
some communities organized against the Lake
Shore Plant’s operations. Jocelyn Travis, a native
to Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood was one
such critic:
This plant is right in the midst of the black
community. You don’t hear anything about
it, and it’s killing our community. This park
that was once vibrant… there’s noting go-
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As a community, we’ve got to come together
we’ve got to do the right thing.
The recently established Cleveland Lakefront
Nature Preserve (to the north), opened by the
Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority on
February 6, 2012, is located on a human-made
peninsula known as Dike 14. It is also where
waters from Doan Brook become one with Lake
Erie. Before being recognized as a land worth pre-
serving, this was land being made from unwanted
material. From 1930-1970s, it was a solid waste
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in the early 1970s. In 1962, two coal-powered
ships from the US Steel Fleet were sunk here to
help create a reef. The bulk of the land mass, how-
ever, is the result of sediment dredged from the
Cuyahoga River and Cleveland Harbor, dumped
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relationship to the 29 other dikes throughout the
Great Lakes. Being closed to the human public
between 1999-2012, the site was populated by
non-humans, including red foxes, minks, more
than 280 species of birds, and numerous insects,
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it remains to be seen how the non-human inhabit-
ants will welcome new visitors.
‡/RFDWLRQ: 11105 Superior Ave, Fred (Ahmed)
Evans’ (one-time) Home
On July 23, 1968, a series of events unfolded that
would become known as the “Glenville Shoot-
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tion and the militarization of the Glenville neigh-
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causes and effects, but are unavoidably linked to
the other “disturbances” occurring in cities across
the United States where struggles for racial and
economic justice met opposition and indiffer-
ence.
Seven people were killed, several others serious-
ly wounded in the shootout, and in its aftermath,
dozens of citizens suffered beatings, many at the
GLVSRVDOIDFLOLW\µLWVQDPH'LNHLGHQWLÀHGLWV hands of the police. Estimates of the damages and
losses were in excess of $2.6 million, including 63
business establishments.
Fred Evans, also known as Ahmed, has become a
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tout and subsequent violence. Retrospective me-
dia accounts of Ahmed’s injuries suffered in the
“Korean War,” his turn to astrology and black
nationalism, and his general erratic behavior
painted a picture of a man heading towards vio-
lence. The Wall Street Journal once quoted him
as predicting that May 9, 1967 would be a day of
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true. White America seemed fearful of a militant
black uprising. A Jet magazine article published
after the shootout noted that “some critics were
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of Algiers… at the Continental Art Theater, six
blocks from the riot scene.” During Ahmed’s trial,
much was also made of funding he received from
the “Cleveland: Now!” program for his Afro Cul-
ture Shop and Bookstore that served youth in the
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lines of questioning by the prosecution, Ahmed
was sentenced to death by electric chair. Granted
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prison of cancer in 1978.
‡/RFDWLRQ: 1387 East Blvd, Salon des Refuses
A place for practicing the art of living. Operated
by artist, performer & poet Julie Patten.
This is how Julie describes the Salon des Refus-
es:
One artist from East Boulevard, from Cleveland,
from India or any other place is invited to live,
work and exhibit in this building. Needing little to
subsist in such a supportive environment, the artist
is able to liberate their practice from commerce,
performing instead a valued service through their
own work and their administration of the gallery.
This project was developed in partnership with an
existing youth program and community garden,
with which the artist works closely to integrate
gallery functions and programming.
The City of Cleveland has lost nearly 50% of its
population since 1950. In 2009, 1387 East Bou-
levard is at 50% capacity. A woman on this street
will die without telling anyone how she used to
prepare a Sunday meal. We are rapidly losing our
sense of place.
Art that is based on place does more than just re-
call the physical place to its inhabitants and the
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to create meaning. Printing presses, recording
studios and proscenium stages are not to be found
anywhere in this building; here we have dried oak
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ping iron coal chutes, rooms that are holding their
breath...
The art that happens here is one of re-purposing,
re-collecting. The discipline derives from living,
and being lived-in. All materials are native, inex-
pensive or free, belonging to this place already—
an artist simply borrows them for their stay. Place
is built-upon, built-up and rebuilt. Nothing is
knocked down or demolished but that notion of
placelessness that effaces our bashful city.
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there is truly nothing special about 1387 East
Boulevard. It is a place, just like any other.
Escarpment
Flows of Information
‡/RFDWLRQ The middle of the quad on the cam-
pus of Case Western Reserve University, south of
Euclid Ave, between MLK Dr. and Adelbert Rd.
At a historic marker here, you are informed that
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achievements of the 19th century” was made by
Dr. Albert A. Michelson of Case and Dr. Edward
W. Morley of Western Reserve University at some
nearby location. What the plaque doesn’t tell us
is what that achievement was. In essence, what
was gained was through a failure. Michelson and
Morely set out to prove that lightwaves moved
through a substance called “aether” in the same
way sound waves move through particles of mat-
ter. Their experiment concluded that there was no
ubiquitous aether through which light moved, that
light always moved at the same speed. This, and
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Theory of Relativity.
While the Internet today is increasingly regulated
by entertainment and data-collection companies,
The Cleveland Free-Net, a free public computer
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in the Doan Brook Watershed. Begun in July 1986,
by Dr. Thomas M. Grundner of Case Western Re-
serve University the Free-Net evolved from the
“St. Silicon’s Hospital and Information Dispen-
sary,” started in 1984 as an electronic free medical
advice service for Clevelanders. Eventually, the
network was renamed the Cleveland Free-Net,
and provided discussion forums, email and other
professional services. By 1988, it had more than
1,000 registered users. Following transfer of the
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vices and capacity upgrades, the service gained
tens of thousands of new users, reaching more
than 160,000 by 1995.
One Cleveland user (au329@cleveland.edu)
wrote of her experience:
“The Freenet made an email mailbox available
to each user so they could use and participate in
email. Shortly after I signed onto the Cleveland
Freenet I had the thrill of receiving a New Year’s
greeting from a friend in Australia.”
As commercial internet access became more
available and affordable, the Free-Net was un-
able to sustain demand, closing on September 30,
1999.
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ic marker celebrating another network dedicated
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which escaped slaves made their way north to
Canada.
Just to the east of CWRU, the Doan Brook runs
underground through a 5,160 ft. long culvert.
Noted historian and naturalist of the Brook Laura
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8QLYHUVLW\ &LUFOH DUHD HYHU\ WKUHH WR ÀYH \HDUV
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years. As a result of the increased urbanization,
the amount of water running into Doan Brook is
likely four times what it was during Nathaniel Do-
an’s time. During extreme rain events, like those
in 1959 and 1975, the Brook resurfaces, pushing
up manhole covers and temporarily reclaiming its
territory above ground.
Plateau
Natural Divisions
‡/RFDWLRQ: 12800 Cedar Rd, Cleveland Heights,
St. Ann School
Along with the violent events in Glenville, 1968
also saw the passage of the Fair Housing Act,
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practices that were occurring across the nation in
mostly white enclaves like the Heights communi-
ties south of Cleveland. When people of color did
manage to secure a home in such neighborhoods,
violent reactions by whites were not uncommon,
including arson, bombings, and shootings. In re-
sponse to this endemic racism, grassroots organi-
zations such as the local Heights Citizens for Hu-
man Rights formed. In 1971, a group of women
parishioners of the St. Ann Parish formed the St.
Ann Social Action Housing Committee to address
housing discrimination in Cleveland Heights. The
following year, the St. Ann’s Committee carried
out an undercover audit of local real estate prac-
tices, resulting in a report that revealed unmistak-
able racial discrimination. The report was covered
extensively in the Sun Press and the Plain Dealer
creating noticeable controversy in the Cleveland
Metropolitan area. In the aftermath of the study,
the Heights Community Congress (HCC) was
formed in 1972 by local Catholic, Jewish, and
Protestant leaders to continue the anti-discrimina-
tion work. The HCC can be found today nearby,
at 2475 Lee Road.
‡/RFDWLRQ 2600 South Park Blvd, The Nature
Center at the Shaker Lakes
The Federal-aid Highway Act of 1956, with its
mandate to create a national interstate system,
rolled out large paths of concrete through many
of the nation’s cities. While the Federal Highway
system was purportedly designed to facilitate the
rapid movement of military operations, their ef-
fect in cities was the mass migration of middle
class whites out of urban centers and the violent
division of neighborhoods. Had Cuyahoga Coun-
ty Engineer Albert Porter had his way, the I-290/
Clark and Lee Freeways would have cut through
much of eastern Cleveland and the Heights com-
munities here, destroying the Shaker Lakes and
hundreds of homes in these cities. Aligned with
other “freeway revolts” around the country, the
well-heeled residents of Shaker Heights and
their neighboring allies effectively stopped the
encroaching rivers of concrete and asphalt. Due Acknowledgments
to the work of activists like Kathleen Barber
and Jean Eakin, the Nature Center at the Shaker
The following individuals provided invaluable
Lakes was established in 1966. The Nature Cen-
advice and resources:
ter preserved the Shaker Lakes, man-made bod-
ies of water created by the Shaker North Union
Victoria Mills, of the Doan Brook Watershed
Settlement when they dammed the Doan Brook
Partnership
to power mills. While social separations may still
exist between the geologic territories of the Lake
Julie Patton, of Salon des Refuses
Plain and Plateau, they are, thanks to the actions
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As with any territory in the Americas, this
passport depicts a contested land. The locations
and stories contained here exist on top of, and
alongside, many others.